Whoogles: Can A Dog Make A Woman Pregnant - And Hundreds Of Other Searches That Make You Ask "Who Would Google That?" (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Somewhere between a third and a half of these are pretty funny (personal favorite: "I would like to tape my thumbs to my hands to see what it would be like to be a dinosaur"), but considering the heavy dose of scorn the authors heap on regular people for having the temerity to ask Google something they don't know, the authors display breathtaking amounts of ignorance of their own. They don't know that the sentence "I am rubbish at maths" is perfectly well formed British English. They don't know that animal farts do indeed contribute to global warming. They don't know a huge amount of pop culture (song and tv show quotations are common among these supposedly "silly" requests).Worst, though, is that I read this book because it was on YALSA's Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers which means a committee of librarians thought this would be a good read for kids who don't ordinarily read. My feeling is that this book could be actively harmful for reluctant readers who may find many of their own google questions among these, see the scorn the authors have for them, and be discouraged from asking the questions in the first place. SO people are stupid... I don't think that's ever been a secret. I myself often take great delight in the mental disadvantage and misadventures of others. But there is a point where things stop being funny and are just plain crass and unpalatable, (at least in my opinion). And this book slides right into that not so sweet spot. Here at my local Lib we have it shelved in a place to entice reluctant readers, and it may well do that... but part of me wishes we were filling their heads with a better words.
What do You think about Whoogles: Can A Dog Make A Woman Pregnant - And Hundreds Of Other Searches That Make You Ask "Who Would Google That?" (2010)?
Not as fun as I thought it was going to be. Neat idea, but snarky tone was not attractive.
—swim101
Some were really funny, but a lot of missed opportunities.
—thegingerone
